The relationship of gastrointestinal complications and ventilator related status with gastric residual volume in intensive care patients

Abstract

Aim: Our study aimed primarily to determine whether there was a relationship between total gastric residual volume (GRV) amounts and two different GRV thresholds and the development of gastrointestinal intolerance in patients on mechanical ventilation in the intensive care unit (ICU) and secondarily, to determine the effects of different GRV quantities on ventilator-related conditions (VAC). Methods: Seventy patients above the age of 18 who were scheduled to be fed with enteral nutrition (EN) for at least three days, were divided into two groups including 35 patients according to GRV threshold values of 250 ml and 500 ml. The total amounts of GRV of the patients who did not exceed any of the two GRV thresholds during the follow-up period of 72 hours were recorded and calculated. For all patients, necessary data was recorded and high gastric residual volume rates (HGRV), times to reach target calories, mean GRV amounts, abdominal distension, vomiting, diarrhea, VAC and infection-related ventilator-related complications (IVAC) were all observed. Results: Although there were statistically significant differences between the groups in terms of the HGRV rates and the HGRV rates exceeding the determined threshold values [p <0.05], there was no significant difference between the groups in terms of abdominal distension, vomiting, diarrhea, VAC and IVAC (p> 0.05). Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that measuring the amount of GRV in intensive care patients fed by EN via the nasogastric tube in order to decide on gastrointestinal motility function and to reduce the complication rate, is not necessary.